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Apr 1 2023
Political Economy
By:
Pierre Lemieux
It is a strange idea that we are the stewards of the earth. It is not clear who is "we" and which part of that "we" is a steward of which part of the earth; or which part of "we" is the owner of what the other part merely stewards. As the term has no technical economic meaning, let's defer to Merriam-Webster, who defin...
Apr 1 2023
EconLog
By:
David Henderson
I’ve been at odds with many people on the right, many on the left, and many in the approximate center for some time now. But various things I’ve learned have convinced me that many of them were right and I was wrong. Here are some. Bomb fentanyl factories in Mexico I’ve run into a number of people who want the...
Mar 31 2023
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
By:
Kevin Corcoran
I’ve written before about finding the ideas of economics in works of fiction. I’ve also described how I find F. A. Hayek’s distinction between law and legislation to be a key insight in understanding how the world works. In this system, legislation is the written, articulated, deliberately constructed rule book, ...
Mar 30 2023
Finance
By:
Scott Sumner
As you may know, I've long advocated the abolition of federal deposit insurance. I believe that a free market would provide people with safe places to store wealth, such as narrow banks and MMMFs that invest in T-bills. But my proposal is not politically feasible, at least for the foreseeable future.Josh Hendrickson ha...
Mar 30 2023
Energy, Environment, Resources
By:
Pierre Lemieux
Is it better to have more or less population in your country and the world? I ask the question in a short article in the Spring issue of Regulation. I review a few economic and philosophical arguments on both sides of the debate. On the one hand, we have known a certain type of currently recycled environmental argum...
Mar 29 2023
Cross-country Comparisons
By:
John Phelan
In 1980, Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government passed its famous Housing Act. This gave five million council house tenants in England and Wales the ‘Right to Buy’ their house from their local authority at a discount reflecting rent previously paid. For Thatcher, it was the perfect mix of ideological and ...
Mar 29 2023
Family Economics
By:
Kevin Corcoran
Economics emphasizes the power of incentives in influencing how people behave. When I began to read economics, I found this focus on incentives very plausible, because I had seen firsthand a very strong example of how the incentives created by a system of rules was clearly influencing the way people made a major life d...
Read this Scott Sumner Book Review
Nov 2 2020
Book Review
By Scott Sumner
A Book Review of Strategies for Monetary Policy, John H. Cochrane and John B. Taylor, eds.1 Each year, the Hoover Institution hosts a conference on monetary policy at its Stanford University headquarters. The conferences bring together academics and Fed officials to discuss issues in monetary economics. The pr...
Mar 29 2023
International Trade
By:
David Henderson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday the United States was looking at ways to strengthen its sanctions against Iran, but acknowledged the sanctions had not resulted in the behavioral or policy changes Washington desires from Tehran. This is from David Lander and Kanishka Sing...
Mar 28 2023
Price Controls
By:
David Henderson
Newsom pushes through a bill that penalizes oil companies for "price-gouging." California lawmakers voted on Thursday to advance a bill that would penalize oil companies for “price gouging” — a first-of-its-kind legislation pushed forward in recent months by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). The SBX1-2 bill, sponsore...
Mar 28 2023
International Trade
By:
Scott Sumner
During the latter part of the 20th century and the early 21st century, a consensus emerged that industrial polices were counterproductive. This view was a part of what was known as the "Washington Consensus".Unfortunately, economics goes through cycles as one fad after another becomes fashionable, at least until societ...
Mar 28 2023
Incentives
By:
David Henderson
The symposium on Thomas Sowell's work went very well. A great group of people from whom I learned a lot. Here are more of my favorite quotes from Sowell. The first three are from his 2009 book Intellectuals and Society. Why the transfer of decisions from those with personal experience and a stake in the outcome to ...
Mar 27 2023
Political Economy
By:
Pierre Lemieux
Participating in a mob carries a risk similar to that of reveling in being part of the majority (or “the people,” or the righteous). The risk is that the mob or the majority can turn against you. It happened to some Red Guards in Mao’s time, and it is occasionally happening in America too, arguably more and more ...
Mar 27 2023
Taxation
By:
David Henderson
What is the worst of President Biden’s latest proposed tax increases? It’s hard to say. There are many strong candidates. So rather than choose the worst, I’ll choose what I think are the two worst: the increase in the corporate income tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and the increased tax rates on ...
Mar 26 2023
EconLog
By:
David Henderson
The horrible treatment of a speaker at Stanford Law School by some law students and a dean a couple of weeks ago reminded me of something that happened over 50 years ago. In November 1971, when I was attending the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, my newfound friend Harry Watson (who, sadly, died las...
Mar 25 2023
Finance
By:
Scott Sumner
Matt Yglesias has a new Substack on money and banking, with the following title and subtitle: How banks create money out of nothingThe Fed’s two missions are intimately linked Given that most colleges have a course on "Money and Banking", the claim in his subtitle is not particularly controversial (although I d...